[Voice of the Central Media] "Workers' Daily" reports that China Aluminum International Shenyang Institute's "technological foundation" accounts for nearly 40% of the global electrolytic aluminum capacity.

Worker’s Daily

On March 31, the Worker’s Daily published an article titled “The ‘Technical Backbone’ Powering Nearly 40% of Global Aluminum Smelting Capacity.” The report said that the core technology exported by Chalco International’s Shenyang Institute is driving China to rise strongly—from an aluminum-deficient country that relied entirely on imports to a rule-setter in the global aluminum industry map. As the technological “starting point” of New China’s aluminum industry, the Shenyang Institute is located in Maluwan, Heping District, Shenyang. For 75 years, the lights here have illuminated the sweeping journey of China’s aluminum industry—from nothing to something, from weak to strong, and from stumbling first steps to leading the world. Its technological achievements are now driving the efficient operation of nearly 40% of the world’s aluminum smelting capacity. Let’s take a look at the original report together.

The “Technical Backbone” for Nearly 40% of Global Aluminum Smelting Capacity

In the spring of 2026, at Maluwan’s central square in Heping District, Shenyang, traffic flows incessantly. On the west side of the square, two buildings—one tall and one short—stand side by side. One is an old Japanese-style brick-and-wood (brick-and-structure) building first built in 1931, with gray bricks and dark tiles, silent as a clock; the other is a modern office building with a glass curtain wall, where the sound of keyboards and hushed discussions rise and fall in turns, while on the tablet computers in engineers’ hands, three-dimensional modeling, simulation analysis, and data forecasting are displayed.

Few people know that this seemingly ordinary corner is the “starting point” of China’s aluminum industry. The technologies developed here are precisely driving the efficient operation of nearly 40% of the world’s aluminum smelting capacity, helping China grow from an aluminum-deficient country that relied entirely on imports into a rule-setter in the global aluminum industry map. This is where Shenyang Aluminum & Magnesium Design and Research Institute Co., Ltd. (hereinafter referred to as Shenyang Aluminum & Magnesium Institute) is located. For 75 years, the lights in Maluwan have illuminated the journey of China’s aluminum industry—from nothing to something, from weak to strong, and from stumbling first steps to leading the world.

Pioneering with hardships

In 1949, when the People’s Republic of China was founded, the nationwide aluminum output was only 10 tons, a matter tied to national defense and security.

In the gray small building of Maluwan, Shenyang, the industrial pioneers of New China squeezed into cramped offices to work through the night for the First Five-Year Plan. In March 1951, the predecessor of the Shenyang Aluminum & Magnesium Institute—the Northeast Ministry of Industries Civil Engineering Design Company—came into being. At that time, all drawings were created step by step by engineers using compasses and rulers on drafting boards; the data were calculated using an abacus and a hand-cranked calculator. Under such conditions, they designed China’s first aluminum smelter—Fushun Aluminum Plant, and its first alumina plant—Shandong Aluminum Plant—along with more than ten other “firsts” of New China.

In 1952, 31 girls with an average age of under 22 formed the “March 8 Women’s Survey Team,” the first women’s survey team in New China. They carried instruments weighing more than 20 kilograms as they traveled through barren mountains and remote countryside; their left shoulders swelled, so they switched to their right shoulder. They measured by day and整理ed data by lamplight at night.

According to incomplete statistics, during just the First Five-Year Plan period, this place sent more than 2,000 technical personnel nationwide in the fields of metallurgy, surveying, and design—spreading these “sparks” to Beijing, Guiyang, Nanchang, Kunming, and other places—so that China’s aluminum industry’s technological map expanded rapidly.

In the early 1950s, our country adopted side slot technology introduced from the former Soviet Union. Technical personnel at the Shenyang Aluminum & Magnesium Institute studied hard and developed top slot technology in the mid-1960s at the Fushun Aluminum Plant. With the era of reform and opening up, new challenges came along. In 1978, our country introduced 160kA large-scale prebaked cell technology from a Japanese light metals company. At that time, domestic industry was still using self-baking anode cells with high pollution and high energy consumption. Although the introduced cell design had problems such as high cell temperature, poor formation of the hearth lining, many sediments, and low cell lifespan, its advanced automated control and flue gas purification system shook China’s aluminum industry.

A campaign of “digesting, absorbing, and innovating anew” was launched in Maluwan. National engineering design master Yang Ruixiang modified part of the fourth series of cells at the Fushun Aluminum Plant into 23 135kA side-feeding prebaked cells, conducted an expansion test for the prebaked cells, and put them into operation in November 1979—pioneering the path toward large-scale production. This cell design was later applied in the construction of the Baotou Aluminum Plant and won the Second Prize of the 1987 National Award for Progress in Science and Technology.

In the 1990s, the Shenyang Aluminum & Magnesium Institute developed the SY series aluminum smelting cells for large-scale direct operation through numerical simulation research. Entering the 21st century, a technical team led by Yang Xiaodong and others carried out arduous simulation design based on the existing SY series cell designs. To verify magnetic field data, technicians stayed in the sweltering workshops for more than ten hours, and draft sheets optimizing the busbar configuration filled the entire room.

Persistence bore fruit. The SY series large-scale prebaked anode aluminum smelting cells have features such as a reasonable busbar configuration, stable magnetohydrodynamic stability, good thermal balance, and an intelligent multi-mode cell control system. In 2001, the SY300kA series cells designed by the Shenyang Aluminum & Magnesium Institute set a historic record for reaching designed production capacity; afterward, the record was continuously broken.

Leading the World

In 2013, 12 600kA ultra-large aluminum smelting cells under a national 863 Program key project—undertaken by the Shenyang Aluminum & Magnesium Institute—were successfully started.

In 2017, an aluminum smelting technology optimization and upgrade project by Indonesia National Aluminium Company was tendered globally. This was a demanding customer with only world-class competitors coming in. The competitor designed five pilot cells, while the Shenyang Aluminum & Magnesium Institute designed three. After a year and a half of testing, the competitor’s five cells had three failures, while the Shenyang Aluminum & Magnesium Institute’s three cells had excellent technical performance indicators and lower investment costs. Without hesitation, the owner chose the Chinese solution.

At this moment, the international market finally realized: China’s aluminum industry technology is trustworthy, and China’s cells are quietly leading the world.

Today, the 660kA cells are already a reality in China—an achievement that, for more than 100 years since the invention of the Hall-Héroult process, humanity has never reached in scaling up aluminum smelting production.

A New Journey

After 75 years, the lights in Maluwan have not dimmed; instead, they shine even more brilliantly amid the waves of the new era.

In Baotou, the Huayun Phase III aluminum smelting project is already running. This is the first plant in the aluminum industry in the true sense—a digital twin factory. The Shenyang Aluminum & Magnesium Institute’s delivery is no longer just drawings, but a three-dimensional digital factory that runs in sync with the physical plant. By simply tapping lightly on a screen, management personnel can see the real-time temperature, voltage, and molecular ratio of smelting cells from thousands of miles away. What used to rely only on experience—“watching, smelling, and listening”—from veteran workers has now become precise data streams.

Facing the “dual carbon” targets, a green revolution is quietly taking place. The “digital aluminum smelting cell technology with multi-source monitoring and regional control,” independently developed by the Shenyang Aluminum & Magnesium Institute, reduces the average effect coefficient of smelting cells by 40% and significantly improves current efficiency. In the energy-saving and environmental protection field, they also developed the “ultrafine droplet horizontal desulfurization system,” which reduces energy consumption by more than 35% compared with traditional technologies.

In 2024, the archive of the Shenyang Aluminum & Magnesium Institute—bearing 250k rolls and more than 600,000 volumes of technical drawings—was selected into the list of industrial cultural heritage of central enterprises. Here are the blueprint for the first alumina plant in New China, and design drafts for more than 500 aluminum, magnesium, silicon, and titanium plants. These yellowing papers record not only technical parameters, but also the spirit passed down in China’s aluminum industry—its self-strengthening and unremitting striving.

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